Map: Surroundings & Nearby

The past two years were tough ones for wunderkind Danny Bowien. The Lower East Side iteration of his San Francisco success Mission Chinese was shut down by the health department for sanitary violations (it has since reopened in a new location), he became involved in lawsuits with his landlord, and his Mexican endeavor, Mission Cantina, was met with a relative critical shrug. But meanwhile, the Korean-born, Oklahoma-raised chef’s originalSan Francisco Mission Chinese keeps plugging along, serving the kung pao pastrami, cumin lamb breast, and riff on ma po tofu that earned him praise for doing to Chinese food "what Led Zeppelin did to the blues.”